


Anchor

by rarmaster



Series: the ricochet got away from you [1]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-14
Updated: 2017-09-14
Packaged: 2018-12-29 18:09:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12090555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rarmaster/pseuds/rarmaster
Summary: In the transition from the Realm of Darkness back to the Realm of Light, for a brief moment, Destiny Islands was caught between those two states. It was caught in the interim between both realms, a bridge between both for a few seconds…That’s when Kairi saw the woman on the beach.





	Anchor

_“May your heart be your guiding key… You’ll know… where I am…”_

 

Aqua reached her hand up to the stars one last time, trying to catch them before her vision faded to black. What she would give to take the stars with her. That at least would make the darkness she was returning to more bearable…

To her surprise, something caught her outstretched fingers. A hand, she realized, belatedly.

She couldn’t see anything, but she could feel as the light filled her lungs, filled her bones. She could feel the light surround her, soft and warm, a protection from the surrounding darkness.

“Hang on!” came a voice. A girl’s voice. Panicked. “Hang on, I’ve got you! Just- Just hang on!”

 

~ ~

 

Watching destiny islands burst back to life around her? It was beautiful, really. Kairi watched with wonder, even if a pang of regret—of jealousy, really—sat in her chest. She should have gone with Sora. Somehow, there had to have been a way.

Of course, it was too late now. That was the worst part. The tears that stung in her eyes were as much because she was happy to be home again as they were tears of frustration. ( _She was stuck here, Sora was off elsewhere, and who even knew where Riku was. She hadn’t seen him since Hollow Bastion. Was he okay? Or did Ansem—_ )

Kairi tried to push those thoughts out of her mind, and focus on how breathtaking this was, this _really_ was. Watching the Islands knit themselves back together. Palm trees bursting back into existence. The stars in the sky, glistening, falling back into place. The way the sand and the waves spread out around her, filling in empty space, and—

There was a woman lying on the beach.

Kairi didn’t think twice. She ran. She didn’t know who the woman was—she didn’t recognize her, or she didn’t _think_ she did—but she. She wasn’t sure. Kairi just knew that there was a woman on the beach that was otherwise empty, the beach that was still reforming, and…

The woman stretched her hand up to the stars. The ground beneath her vanished.

Kairi watched in surprise as the woman _fell_ through the island, fell into the gaping dark hole that opened up beneath her. Kairi lunged forward, throwing herself to the ground, plunging her arms into the hole to grab a hold of the woman.

She didn’t know who this was. But she was going to save her.

“Hang on!” Kairi shouted, as her fingers caught the woman’s. “Hang on, I’ve got you!” Why wasn’t the woman screaming? Why wasn’t she scared? If _Kairi’d_ just fallen through a hole in the ground, she’d be pretty damn terrified.

It was an effort, to support the woman’s weight, even though the thing Kairi was elbows-deep in didn’t feel like emptiness—it felt like it had substance. Kind of like mud. She could see through it perfectly, but she could also feel the way it pressed against her arms. It was cold as ice, and it made her skin itch like hell. Most frustratingly, the woman didn’t even seem to be trying to grasp Kairi’s hand in return.

“Just- just hang on!” Kairi shouted. It was a cry as desperate as it was angry. Did this woman not _want_ to be saved? Grinding her jaw, Kairi shifted her weight onto her knees, leaning back as she pulled.

The effort was less physical than it was—something else. Something stirring, bubbling up inside her. Some kind of power she’d used once before, when she’d wrapped her arms around Sora’s Heartless and called to him in the dark. The woman she was clinging to was in the dark now. Maybe she had to do the same thing…?

Kairi squeezed her eyes shut and she focused on that something, that energy inside her. Saving Sora had been an accident, and trying to tap into it, to repeat the process deliberately seemed near impossible. She wasn’t even sure how she’d done it the first time!

But she was too stubborn to give up.

So she dug in her heels and she pulled and she just _wished,_ and she shouted:

“Please, hang on! Please, don’t let go!” She didn’t have a name to call, and maybe that would help, but what did it matter, if she didn’t have one? “Come on come on come on come on,” she groaned, as she pulled, and she pulled, and—

The darkness released, finally, and the ground returned, and Kairi was sprawling back into the sand, the woman coughing and spluttering beside her.

Kairi allowed herself a second to just _breathe,_ because fuck, that was exhausting. But she only let herself have a moment, because she’d just pulled a woman out of the darkness and she had no idea who the woman was or why even that was a thing she had to do and, more importantly.

She sat up and scrambled over to the woman, but then hesitated, not sure if she should help the woman up or let her figure it out herself. “Are you okay?” she asked frantically, instead. Now she was noticing the scars that patterned the woman’s skin—it was a _lot_ of scars—and the tears in the woman’s clothes. What had this woman _been_ through? “Are you- holy shit, are you okay?” Kairi wasn’t sure what else to ask. It was all still a lot to take in.

The woman did push herself up slowly, legs folding to the side as she righted herself. There was a tired hunch in her shoulders, and as she moved her head to look at Kairi, the movement was slow.

“I… _Kairi_?” the woman asked, squinting at her. Confusion and concern both started to form on her face.

Kairi leaned backwards, squinting in return. “Do I… know you?” she asked.

The woman blinked at her, then laughed a little and shook her head. The vague look in her eyes was starting to go away. “Well, no, you probably don’t remember,” she said. “It was a very long time ago.”

Kairi frowned hard. She didn’t entirely understand, which was infuriating. Plus… It was a little bit determination, her face scrunched up with, too. She dug furiously through her memories, because maybe there _was_ something there…

While she was doing that, the woman looked around, her concern growing, along with a pain that burned in her eyes. “I- hang on. Mickey fixed it, right?” Her voice trembled with some kind of weight Kairi couldn’t fathom. Who was Mickey? “I- The worlds restored themselves. I watched it. So why is this…?” Her eyes settled on Kairi, horror in them. “You shouldn’t be here.”

“Be- where?”

“The Realm of _Darkness._ You should be—this _island_ should be back in the Realm of Light!”

Realm of Darkness? Realm of Light? What was she even talking about?

But, more importantly—

“Oh my god,” Kairi said.

The woman paused, and looked at her, with an inquisitive: “Hmm?”

“Oh my god. I _do_ remember.” It had taken a _lot_ of digging, but Kairi’d managed to drag the memory back up—monsters and purple stone and this woman, blue hair, spinning through the monsters like magic. Kairi’d given her the flowers she’d just picked. ‘ _Thank you, that’s so sweet_ ,’ the woman had replied, and she’d smiled, and—

Kairi reached up to run her hands over her face, and was surprised to find she was crying.

“I- I do remember,” she stammered. She felt like an idiot, sitting on her knees across from this woman, crying and blubbering. But it was all just so much in her chest and. “I remember there were- monsters, and you saved me, and—God. I can’t remember your name.” Had the woman even given it to her at all? Somehow that was worse than forgetting.

The woman hesitated, then smiled at her, that same, soft smile.

“It’s Aqua,” she said.

“Aqua,” Kairi repeated, and she nodded to herself. “Aqua, what were you talking about? What was—Aqua I found you on the beach and then this hole opened up below you and the darkness started to swallow you so I grabbed you and I pulled you out but what the _fuck,_ what even was that?”

Aqua jolted at Kairi’s words. She shook her head in disbelief, a quick shake of it like she hadn’t heard right. She stared right at Kairi.

“I. What do you mean?”

“What I said?? Exactly what I said??” Kairi wasn’t sure what Aqua was asking of her.

“What do you mean, you pulled me out of- of darkness?” Aqua pressed, though as she said it she kind of blinked, as if maybe she was starting to understand.

Kairi shrugged hard. She wasn’t sure how she could put it in any clearer words. She’d pulled Aqua out of a literal hole in the ground. What more was there to it? She tried to explain anyway.

“I mean!! You were falling, so I grabbed you and I just. I pulled you back out.” Nope, that was no more eloquent than it was before. Kairi made a frustrated sound, then gestured to the side, to the unmarred sand. “The hole is gone now.”

Aqua’s eyes followed Kairi’s gesture, and she stared at the beach a moment, stared like she hoped to stare through it and at something beyond. She blinked slowly, mouth moving for a few seconds before she found words.

“You… pulled me out…” Aqua whispered, and there was this- this _amazement_ in her voice, like she didn’t dare to believe—something. Something that Kairi doesn’t understand, but she understood the hesitance of someone who wanted to believe something but was afraid. What was Aqua afraid of?

Aqua looked up, and looked around the Islands. She spun around where she sat, displacing sand as she took every detail in. Her gaze caught on the stars above them. A small sound escaped her lips, as she clutched a hand to her chest. Kairi wasn’t sure if the sound was a laugh or a sob or something in between.

“Aqua?” Kairi asked.

It was a sob, Kairi realized, as Aqua hunched over with more of them. They weren’t loud at all, but they shook Aqua’s shoulders, and she was crying _hard_. And Kairi had no idea why.

Kairi scrambled towards her, reaching her hands out. “Hey, Aqua— _Hey_. Are you okay?” Aqua seemed to cry harder as Kairi put her hands on her shoulders. “Aqua! I- holy shit. What’s wrong? What did—did I do something??”

That was such a stupid thing to ask, Kairi realized once she had asked, because she probably hadn’t done anything, but—

Aqua looked up at her, wiping at her eyes. Her mouth was pulled in a wide, haphazard smile.

“You did do something, Kairi,” Aqua said, a fondness burning in her voice. “You did something wonderful.”

 


End file.
